It kind of sounds oxymoronic, but a law passed in California back in 2016 to ease the housing crisis just might be showing some fruit. According to a recent story on Bloomberg, California’s legislature passed a law two years ago that allows owners of single-family properties to build guest apartments, which are referred to as accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Basically, they’re granny flats, guest houses or apartments over the garage. They have to be in residential areas and meet setback and height requirements. Interestingly, cities cannot outlaw them nor can they force homeowners to go through the local planning commission. However Bloomberg does ponder whether “cities will resist the temptation to excessively control how homeowners use the space.” It is California after all.
“…House flippers are starting to see adding accessory units as a way to increase value enough to make investing in larger houses in particular pay off…”
